The battle over investment has been won

Over the last four years, Italy has consolidated a more prominent role in the European landscape of foreign direct investment (FDI). The number of projects has risen from 108 in 2019 to 206 in 2025, and its share of the European market has more than doubled, reaching 4.1 per cent. These figures buck the trend observed in other major economies on the continent and represent good news, because FDI is not merely capital flowing into the country: it measures long-term confidence in the system. While Italy has benefited from a favourable geopolitical context due to its position in the Mediterranean and its central role in the reconstruction of supply chains and logistics, it has also demonstrated its readiness thanks to specific reforms built around the slogan ‘Invest in Italy’, not least the so-called Single Special Economic Zone (ZES Unica). However, there is room for further progress: the number of investment projects currently ranks Italy seventh in Europe, a position that does not fully reflect its status as the continent’s second-largest manufacturing base with a strong and growing export-oriented economy. The challenge today is to address the factors that investors continue to identify as priorities: energy costs, administrative complexity, productivity and the adoption of technology.